Tuesday, August 21, 2012 . . . Capitalizing on ratings momentum, advertising demand and increased revenue potential for entertainment programming in the 11:35 p.m. time slot, ABC today announced a strategic shift in its late-night strategy to better position the network for increased ratings and financial performance over the long term. On Tuesday, January 8, “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” the only late-night broadcast talk show to increase in Total Viewers this past season, will move to 11:35 p.m., putting the show in head-to-head competition with “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and “Late Show with David Letterman.” Proven late-night performer “Nightline” will shift to 12:35 a.m., allowing viewers to begin and end their broadcast day with news. The moves are timed to take advantage of the built-in promotional platforms provided by ABC’s “Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve with Ryan Seacrest” and ESPN’s Bowl Championship Series, which culminates with the National Championship Game on Monday, January 7. In addition, “Nightline” will expand its programming commitments with a move into primetime, Friday nights at 9:00 p.m. beginning March 1. Given its success and growth, the ABC News series “What Would You Do?” will also find a new home on the schedule.

Kimmel has quietly gotten a lot better in the last couple of years and I highly approve of this move. It's timed well enough that I could skip the latter half of each Conan.

I know of literally nobody who actually watches Kimmel and have seen the show maybe three or four times in the last decade. So while I'm admittedly a bad person to judge, Kimmel will always seem a distant 'other' behind Stewart, Colbert, Craig, Conan or Dave. I'd watch any of those five guys late at night whereas I'd virtually never watch Kimmel or Leno.

That said, this will help Kimmel make in-roads at 11:37 for when Dave and Leno actually retire, though in Leno's case they'll have to drag him out of the studio.

Could be kind of weird that in 5-10 years time, 11:37 will be Kimmel, The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and whomever CBS gets to replace Letterman...I still think it would be dramatically fitting if it's Conan.

"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." --- Bart Giamatti, on baseball

Goodbye Dave. You're been a little boring the last 5 years. Happy retirement.

We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.

That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy - Swift

Originally posted by AWArulzGoodbye Dave. You're been a little boring the last 5 years. Happy retirement.

Who are you talking to? Letterman's around until at least 2014 and hasn't said he's quitting after that.

That'll be me switching.

We'll be back right after order has been restored here in the Omni Center.

That the universe was formed by a fortuitous concourse of atoms, I will no more believe than that the accidental jumbling of the alphabet would fall into a most ingenious treatise of philosophy - Swift